The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-05-13
SP0KES FROM THE HUB.
A TOUGH PROBLEM FOR THE sOCl-
ETY. OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.

Ely Of PSYCHICAI RESEARCH. r
Strange Phenomena Observed In Sub
urb Of Boston-News and Gossip from
the Capital OF New England-Sports
Music and Drama.
Boston, May II.
Are there beings visible, yet intangible9
Bostonians who are given to psychical re-
search and yearnings after the unknowablt
can find almost at their own back doors phe
nomena which will puzzle the cleverest
Dusty Somerville is the locality. have
investigated strange stories, and have found
them supported by evidence such as has
weight with reasonable men.
A more prosaic place than Somerville
avenue would be hard to find. 1t is dreary,
bare Of grass and trees, and lined with
plain, wooden dwellings. The house where
the nerves of many tenants have been Sc.
verely tested is wretched place for a
home-sunken a mans height below the
street level aud shut in on the ghostly side
by the blank, brick end-wall of neighbor.
flg tenement. The rear ell is windowless,
uncleanly stable and woodshed. The house
rests fat on the ground. The yard is sur
rounded by high board fence. Nothing
stimulating to the Imagination about the
place. The witnesses have hitherto held
their tongues, that the property might not
get a bad name.
Yet a man whom I know to be sober,
keen and pious, no friend of phantoms, has
twice seen, in a room of that house, birds
which to the eye were as substantial as any
English sparrow which you may see futter-
inn
day, but which vanished like bubbles Of the
air when he attempted to lay his hand on
them, as they beat their wings against the
dull-colored paper of the walls or the white
paint of the window sill. The windows
were closed and there were no rejecting
surfaces of any kind in sight. No known
natural laws will explain the appearances
nor could tricky neighbors have played the
game. One Of the days in question was
light; on the other the sky was of leaden
hue.
Being q cautious man. the seer of these
things did not alarm his wife with tales,
but moved out Of that house as suddenly as
though a landlord were after him. He had
occupied the ground floor. One day the
housewife of the tenement above told him
that there was something strange about the
house. She had seen birds alight on the
table before her and on the walls, but they
became invisible when she attempted to
toucn them. Wllat did it mean p
h What could be the purpose Of these ap-
pearancesf Did these visions have a mes
sage to convey-some tale perhaps Of crime,
or warning of events to come; or were they
indications of life co-existent with that of
flesh and blood, but only on rare occasions
perceptible to the senses of the sons of
Adam? The tenants gave it up, and said
nothing. Fear of ridicule maybe keeps
others silent.
These happenings were noticed last sum-
mer. A family has just moved out of the
house, giving as their only reason that there
was something strange about it. Other
tenants have acted in like manner
Once a jolly ex-sea dog, whom we will
call Mason, dwelt there. He was the kind
of a man who would shake hands with
ghost and invite him to dinner. One night
his wife, in the next room, was awakened
by her husbands volleys of profanity. 1t
sounded like the opposite of Salvation
Army meeting. Mason explained that his
bed was tossing like a dory in a
gale off the Banks. He thought some of
Norway's biggest rats had got in
the springs and were holding a kirmess
Lights were obtained, but search revealed
no sign of rats. Mason was not a TOPPER
had taken no night-cap, and had eaten no
Somerville griddle-cakes He lay down and
soon had them again worse than ever, being
nearly bounced onto the floor. "We spec
ters are jollier crew than you perhaps
suppose" sings Sir Roderic Murgatroyd
The night continued to be eventful.
Mason heard his name called. "What do
you want?" he asked his wife. 81 didn't
speak" There came rapping at the outer
door. 1t was ''the dead of the nights high
noon" when one doesn't stand on ceremony,
and Mason hurried to the door in his shirt.
AS he opened the door, the bearded person
before him darted round the corner. The
maddened Mason went too, but he might as
well have chased a thunder cloud He caught
nothing.
Mason also moved. Iwon't vouch for his
story, but the one neighbor who has Won
dered at these things for years believes it.
The house has been curiously unlucky,
young and old have sickened and died at an
unusual rate. The situation doesn't account
for this; as the drainage is good. Midnight
brawls and noisy parties have made the
place nuisance in past years. Several
successive proprietors got into trouble. One
went to Jail because other peoples money
SoC uliAcu Will LlSs anu duOCner was dC-
cused of trying to burn the house while peo-
pie were sleeping in it.
But the only crime known to have oc-
CURED in the house was that very common
place affair, suicide. Experts in ghosts |
will find little to satisfy them in this. 1t is |
described as a cold-blooded, deliberate af- |
fair, done in broad daylight before the sui |
cide's wife and step-daughter. The man,
Jones, came home one day in 1871, in a |
presumably jealous state of mind; laid his |
watch and jewelry on a table in the room |
where his family were; went to the |
next room for his revolver. came |
back and fred two shots at himself |
A neighbor heard the shots and the cry: "My |
God! Haven't l friend i'm the world
The neighbor hurried to the room, in the |
third story, and SO slow was the suicide, got |
there in time to grasp the mans arm as he
fired the third shot, which went into the
ceiling. Then he dropped to the floor before
his paralyzed wife and daughter, who had
been in fear for their own lives. He was in
the hospital several weeks before the gaping
wound in his neck let his life out
have given the plain facts. Make of
them what you will. Anyone who wants
the number Of the house can have it.
Marion Harland, the popular story teller
1